Monthly Archives: February 2012

And we are working on the missions! Only 2 missions to complete!! Some balancing to do and we are done!!! I PROMISE you guys that you are in for a treat … You guys are in for a surprise! Ha ha ha … (I must be getting delirious)

annnnnnnnnd … there’s actually nothing much to report this week. We’re hard at work, doing a lot of internal testing and some reorganizing, and hopefully, I’ll have a more interesting post for you next week. In the meantime, keep your suggestions rolling in – every bit helps!

This is Ian here, the creative director and designer of Ravemark. I know it’s usually Kev that posts on our developer blog here and responds to your comments (I tend to hang out at the Touch Arcade forum page here), but I thought it best that I share with you guys our plans for the future and the changes we’ll be making in our line-up. Don’t worry, it’s not as bad as Kev made it out to be. =)

Before I get into it I’d like to that everyone for the incredible support and feedback we’ve gotten over the past few months. It’s heartening to know that so many of you bother to keep in touch with us and help us as we endeavour to make Ravenmark a quality game we can be proud of. We could not ask for better fans. I’d also like to thank the local support in Singapore we’ve gotten thus far from friends, family, media and people that simply believed that we could make a product of Ravenmark’s quality!

It’s with that glowing thought that I’ll move on to more serious issues. Ravenmark, thus far has been a critical success however we look at it – from glowing reviews from major sites to a 4.6 star average on iTunes. I can honestly say we could never dream about the response its gotten so far. Unfortunately, being a critical success doesn’t necessary equate zomgawesome sales. I can safely say we’re making a comfortable amount to keep us going, but it’s not enough to expand so we can get you guys more content in a timely fashion. Keeping that in mind, we’ve reorganised our future line up of updates and games to keep us going.

Here’s what we plan to do;

1. Suneaters Campaign

Suneaters is well on it’s way, assets are done we’re putting together the missions and balancing the armies. Along with the campaign comes a number of UI and game mechanic improvements. Notably, you can now track the paths taken by the various factions on the world map as they trapeze across Eclisse. The main reason for the delay is that the Kaysani army functions distinctly differently from Estellion and we took some time to ensure that the experience was fun and manageable with Swarms. You can expect it roughly at the end of February, latest being the first week of March.

2. Ravenmark, Arc II

If you’ve played through the Ravenhood Campaign, you’re aware that the story ends on a cliffhanger with more questions than answers. Now, Arc II of Ravenmark intends to answer those questions and (perhaps) ask a few more. Previously, we had intended to release Arc II within the current app as a free update. Sadly, we can’t can’t afford to do that and we will be releasing it as a separate app for a small sum to keep us going.

Included in Arc II are:

Deepwood Dragoons – Where we follow Thaddeus and Dwight into the Lyri Barrens and see what dangers they face from both allies and enemies alike.

Raven’s Dusk – We return to Calius’ side, as he deals with the situation dropped on him in Ravenhood; and Rook Harper as he fights to the teeth to defend his people.

Raven’s Rise – The dramatic conclusion to the Kaysani Invasion.

At release, players will have access to Deepwood Dragoons and Raven’s Dusk, while Raven’s Rise will follow a few months after. We’re targeting a June release for Ravenmark, Arc II.

3. Ravenmark, Multiplayer

Some time ago, we promised to add a skirmish function to the current version of Ravenmark. After many a long discussion we’ve decided against this. Ravenmark Multiplayer will be its own app. There’s many reasons why we’ve taken this path, but here are a few of the main ones:

Our game is asset heavy – Having the skirmish mode in a ballooned app isn’t very appealing to people. Moreso for those with devices of a lower capacity.

Game Balancing – Taking a page from Starcraft, we feel that the single and multi-player game should be balanced differently since both experience are vastly different.

Support for a separate app is easier – We figured no one would be keen to update a 700ish mb app just for game balancing.

It needs to be sustained – Unlike offline/single player games, a multiplayer game requires a lot of attention to be kept running. Income from point 5 would help keep that support alive.

We can use a freemium model – This allows people to enjoy the game at no cost while giving a player that wants to invest in the game new experiences. We intend to make it such that bought content adds to experience rather than overpower non-paying players. We’ve mentioned many a time that we aren’t here to make “stupid” money, we hope to provide you guys quality content that you see value in paying for.

Ravenmark MP will include asynchronous multiplayer, hotseat multiplayer and a skirmish mode to test your chops against our annoying evil AI. We haven’t started work on this version of Ravenmark yet, but we hope to have this out in the second half next year.

4. A new untitled project (set in the Ravenmark world, Eclisse)

As you can tell, we’ve got a lot on our plate as it is. Aside from all that madness, we also have another game brewing in the design stages that returns us to Eclisse, Ravenmark’s home campaign world. If everything goes as planned, we’ll start work on this with an expanded team to bring you guys a new game. It’s aimed to be something lighter and easier to play. We’ll give you guys more information as it comes together.

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So! Lots happening in the months to come. I hope that you all will continue to support us as we take this journey. It’s not going to be easy, I’m certain – but you guys are worth it.

Once again, everyone here at WHS is thankful for the support you all have gladly given!

Hi Everyone. I’m going to do things a little different today (and I know I’m a day early, but this has been weighing on me for a while now). Today – we’re going to talk about piracy.

We found out two weeks ago that our game was being pirated, and it almost seemed like there was nothing that we could do about it. Let’s be straightforward here for one minute – we understand the “try before you buy” mentality that most pirates have. Personally, if sales were stellar, we wouldnt have done anything about it. However, seeing that our company’s fate literally hangs in the balance right now, we decided we needed to at least try and stop the spread of the pirated version of our app.

Enter Link Busters. We came across their site while trying to figure out how to do some take downs and figured we’d give their service a try. First off – Marc & Dennis .. if you’re reading this… you guys are doing an amazing job. Within the first three days, they found a total of 130 links to our game spread across filehosters and another 8 through torrents (that number has since ballooned to 150+ and 11 respectively). They have managed to take down at least 95% of filehoster links and about 40% worth of the torrent links. (we definitely saw a spike in sales. While it wasnt a huge boost, every bit counts). On top of that, their service and response time was nothing but stellar. They emailed back and forth almost immediately, and even called me all the way in Singapore when I was a little unsure about some of the takedown stuff they had done.

I can honestly say – if you’re a developer .. email them. Talk to them .. they are very receptive and understand our problems and issues .. and they are willing to help. I wont talk too much about my discussion with them, but suffice to say, they are supportive of indie companies (seriously guys …thank you from all of us)

I’m saying all of this because we’re a bunch of guys working hard in an attic – trying to make ends meet, trying to pay salaries, pay bills and trying to hire more people and trying to expand slowly. If people keep pirating, I can guarantee you that we will not last long (I’m really not kidding about this). We genuinely worked hard on Ravenmark – we sacrificed weekends, holidays, sleep, time with family & friends and a lot of other stuff to bring you this game. I sincerely hope if you have a pirated copy that you will at least try to support us. We didnt slap something together in 2-3 weeks and call it a product. We created something new, something different and we put our heart and soul into it. It’s been said many times, but pirating hurts the smaller guys like us a lot. One of the pirates also dropped us a message telling us we wouldnt be able to stop him. However, his tagline was something along the lines of “buying without trying is a scam”. I mean .. what else do you want us to do? Please tell us if you have a suggestion – we’d be happy to hear it. We’d love for nothing more than to just earn a decent salary and continue to work on our games as a full time job. Also, we have a lite version out here – please download and play it … we’ve given people the opportunity to literally try before they buy … please tell us what you think about it. It should take you at least 2 hours to get through the prologue.

I cant stress this enough, but the truth of the matter is that we’ve sunk in a lot of our savings to jumpstart this company, and we probably wont last very long if the piracy keeps up. All the money that we make literally goes into our employees salary and overheads. Its not like we’re having $50 plates of caviar (we’re pretty content with our $2-$3 meals) so at least think about it before you pirate our game. I know I cant stop you guys from doing so, but remember that that will eventually kill us off (and any original stuff we are developing … Ian’s motto has always been to create original stuff and to never copy).

Lastly – I know a lot of you are wondering why the new campaign isnt out yet. I know I said it would be out by this week, but we’ve run into some … issues. And I wont say more about the matter till Ian makes an official announcement. We are deeply sorry about it, but we are going to get it done by hook or by crook. Please be patient with us …

*ducks in case anyone asks about the suneater’s release date*. Having some issues with the save game transferring over and unlocking the next campaign .. and I’m almost 100% sure no one wants to replay the first 2 chapters again (me neither!) … so we’re working on it

(God, we need a holiday .. and soon!)

We have a few features to continue fixing (especially iCloud implementation for unlocking missions across devices – the data doesnt seem to be sync’ing right)

Hoping to get it out shortly (and believe me .. we are working hard on it!)

And before I forget .. as I promised last week! … The Oathbreaker Bellybows:

Court-martialled members of the Inquistors are sent to serve their sentence among the Oathbreakers. Originally purposed as a source of manual labour for the construction of siege implements, scores of Oathbreakers often plead with the governing Exarch for “field work” – that being to volunteer themselves in battle against insurmountable odds, with success and survival absolving them of any crimes.

The Bellybows are the most sought after placement for Oathbreakers, since ranged elements naturally stand the lowest risk of fatalities. Their weapons are reloaded by placing the butt of the weapon at their bellies. This harnesses their full body weight, allowing them to string their namesake crossbows with massive tension. The Bellybows open fire from the chest, dealing heavy damage while retaining the range and accuracy of a longbow, which makes these archers a fine asset for the Inquistors.

About Witching Hour Studios

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